American video game developer
Glu Mobile LLC is an American developer and publisher of mobile games. It was founded as Sorrent in 2001 and acquired Macrospace in 2004. Both companies collectively rebranded as Glu Mobile in 2005. In April 2021, the company was acquired by Electronic Arts.
History
Glu Mobile was founded as Sorrent in 2001. In December 2004, Sorrent acquired the London-based Macrospace. In June 2005 the merged company created a new corporate name: Glu Mobile.[3] That same year, Greg Ballard replaced Sorrent founder Scott Orr as CEO. In 2006, Glu Mobile acquired iFone and in 2007 it acquired Chinese mobile game producer Beijing Zhangzhong MIG Information Technology Co. Ltd. ("MIG"). In September 2007, Glu announced the launch of Asteroids for mobile phones.[4] In March 2008, Glu acquired San Clemente-based mobile developer Superscape.[5]
In January 2010, Niccolo de Masi joined Glu Mobile as the President and CEO. De Masi was previously CEO at Hands-On Mobile. Since his arrival, Glu has transitioned to a freemium business model focused around Glu's original IP.[citation needed]
On August 2, 2011, Glu acquired Griptonite Games. Its staff of 200 "approximately double[d]" Glu's internal development capacity.[6]
In April 2012, Glu acquired the entire Deer Hunter franchise.[7]
Glu Mobile bought Gamespy Technologies (the entity responsible for GameSpy multiplayer services) from IGN Entertainment in August 2012,[8] and proceeded in December to raise integration costs and shut down servers for many older games, including the Star Wars: Battlefront series, Sniper Elite, Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Neverwinter Nights, with no warning to developers or consumers.[9] GameSpy Technologies remained operational and did not make any announcements of an impending shutdown; the two GameSpy companies were separate entities and only related by name.[10] Glu also shut down online multiplayer servers for several titles on the Nintendo DS and Wii, such as Mario Kart DS, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii. Glu shut down the rest of Gamespy effective on May 31, 2014.[11]
On September 3, 2014, PlayFirst was acquired by Glu. The official statement from Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo de Masi read "We are pleased to officially add PlayFirst to the Glu family and look forward to delivering new DASH products to a worldwide audience."[12]
In April 2015, Chinese company Tencent paid $126 million for a 15% stake in Glu Mobile.[13] It had 20.8% as of 2017.[14]
On November 4th, 2016, Glu purchased the mobile app developer Crowdtap buying their mobile games including Covet Fashion.[15]
On December 22, 2016, it was announced that Glu Mobile had acquired the trivia game QuizUp for US$7.5 million. On January 20, 2021, QuizUp was removed from appstores, and on January 21, 2021, it was announced that QuizUp will be discontinued on March 22, 2021. Since then, all purchases are disabled.[16][17]
In November 2016, Nick Earl became CEO. The majority stake of Glu shares are held by institutions: at the start of the third quarter of 2012, institutional ownership was 78% of the outstanding shares according to Google Finance.[18]
Electronic Arts announced in February 2021 that it plans to acquire Glu in a deal estimated at US$2.4 billion.[19] On the same day of the announcement of the deal, it was revealed that the companies expect the acquisition to close in the second quarter of 2021.[20] In April 2021, EA completed the acquisition of Glu Mobile.[21] Following the shutdown of EA Sports MLB Tap Sports and F1 Mobile Racing mobile games, EA announced it would lay off "a small number of staff" from Glu Mobile.[22]
